Vibes Only
The polls are broken, the stakes are unprecedented, and vibes drive the future of American politics.
Every Thursday, political strategist Brian Derrick (founder of Oath) and new media strategist Glennis Meagher (co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the biggest stories in American politics, elections, and culture.
This isn't your standard cable news commentary. Get an insider's look at the US political machine, current news of the week, and the digital strategy shaping our world - delivered with the honesty, insight, and humor of two people who've actually worked in the trenches of US politics.
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Vibes Only
Trump's 75% Inflation Spike & Bernie Sanders' Radical AI Plan
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Hunter Biden went viral, Graham Platner won Maine, and the AI bubble started to wobble, all in one week. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher break down the new inflation numbers and what they actually mean for your rent and your retirement, why Hunter Biden's chaotic run on X and his Candace Owens interview might be the best thing to happen to the Biden family in years, and how Graham Platner survived a brutal week of headlines to win Maine's Democratic Senate primary and line up a fight with Susan Collins.
Then it's billionaire season. Bernie Sanders wants the public to own half of every major AI company just as SpaceX races toward a record-setting IPO, three big bills are jammed in Congress deciding exactly where your tax dollars go (ICE funding, FISA, and a 1.5 trillion dollar military budget), and FIFA is on track to make a fortune off a World Cup that New York taxpayers are helping foot the bill for, the same week the tournament kicks off.
Also: the Knicks have had all of New York in a happy unifying chokehold, Spencer Pratt loses in LA, and Josh Turek is our Oath Candidate of the Week.
If this podcast makes your week a little less unhinged, be sure to hit follow, leave us a rating and a review wherever you're listening. It takes a minute, and is 100% the single biggest thing that helps new listeners find a small podcast like our’s. Thank you for your support!
OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK: Donate to Josh Turek's Campaign HERE!
Welcome back to Vibes Only. This week we're talking inflation numbers, billionaire IPOs, and the staggering costs around the World Cup.
Glennis:Also, Spencer Pratt lost in Los Angeles, the Bidens are getting back on the shelves, and Hunter Biden is back online. I am thriving.
Brian:I am not. We're probably gonna fight about it. And Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek is our Oath candidate of the week. Let's get into it.
Glennis:Hi Brian.
Brian:Hey Glennis, good morning.
Glennis:Good morning. How are you?
Brian:Feeling a little warm today?
Glennis:No, are you?
Brian:I'm feeling hot because the economy is literally on fire. We just got new inflation numbers that we actually must, must, must talk about.
Glennis:Okay. I thought you were gonna ask me like about the World Cup or if I'm hot and excited because that starts on Thursday, day of vibes only, first game.
Brian:We can get into all of that and Knicks in six.
Glennis:Knicks in five, but okay.
Brian:It doesn't rhyme I I I need someone to come up with some reason for it to be Knicks in five. Otherwise Knicks in six just sounds better.
Glennis:I saw someone say Trump killed the vibe, Knicks in five.
Brian:Okay. I'm here for that. That's solid. We just got a bombshell new report in moments before we started recording that I feel the need to lead this episode with.
Glennis:I'm nervous. I haven't seen the news.
Brian:We just got new inflation numbers in. What it shows is that Trump has trashed the economy, which we knew, but this data is pretty shocking, to be honest. Inflation has now spiked 75% since Biden. So at the end of Biden's term, inflation was at 2.4%, just above the target where it's always supposed to be around 2%. It is now at 4.2%. So we're approaching double what it was at the end of Biden's term. That is a direct result of Trump starting a war with no plan, no strategy, no end goals, really just military adventurism that has now thrashed the world economy.
Glennis:Right.
Brian:Addition to the tariffs and other horrendous policies that he implemented in his first year.
Glennis:And I would say is a direct result of Trump genuinely not giving a sh*t about the economic stability of the American people. He's said it. He also has been leeching the United States economy and capitalism for his own personal net worth gain. So I'm not surprised and I do not think he cares at all.
Brian:At all. And you're exactly right. Like that is the message and why I think it's so important for Democrats to be focused there before any and everything else. There are so many outrageous things that he does and says. the UFC fight, the reflecting pool, the weaponization fund, all of these things, but bringing it always, always, always, always back to you are worse off. You cannot afford anything. You can't pay for rent, housing, food, a vacation, savings, college. Your kids, childcare, health care, you cannot pay for anything. Trump is 10xing his family wealth. What more do you need to know than that? Right. So much of the other stuff falls away for me when you really hit that message home.
Glennis:Yeah, did you see you're making me think of this headline I was walking back from like coffee and I saw the headline and as a millennial I was just like water off a duck's back, but it was social security will be insolvent by 2032 let me double check that. I got nervous because I w then I realized 2032 is not that far away. Like Yeah.
Brian:No, we're never gonna see that. We are never gonna see that.
Glennis:It's just more people I think need to be talking about that. Look at your paycheck, look at how much comes out. And like the three main reasons why this is the case is one, because of the big brutal bill, the 2017 tax cuts. If you're over I think it's 60 you're not taxed on your social security anymore, which for boomers is a great thing. But then for people like us it means that we're not gonna get that. And least of which is like all of the immigration, right? People are not coming. We're deporting people. And undocumented immigrants, they contribute about twenty-six billion a year to social security.
Brian:Right. I mean, shrinking the economy, shrinking the population while cutting the tax base and handing away the cash that we do have to either billionaires or defense contractors or both is a recipe for f*cking over millennials and the middle class generally, Gen Z Gen X included. That is why this is so important. It's it's important that we talk about it now. It's important that we highlight it for the midterms and tell people what's going on. But also this is a turning point for the Democratic Party. And we have to make it a turning point for the Democratic Party. The brand of the party has been defined for the last 10 years by social justice issues around women's rights LGBT equality and racial justice and all of these things that are so critical and are a uh potentially frivolous pursuit without basic economic justice, without basic policy that can meet the basic needs of everyone. Let me say basic five more times. It's just it is about getting back to basics, like in in many ways. And rather than craft back to basics. I mean, it it's kind of true. And I am very set on Democrats learning this lesson, not for 2026 but for the next twenty years.
Glennis:Yeah, no, for sure.
Brian:What people want to see and hear and talk about day in and day out is how do I make everyone's lives better every day more than singling out individual or niche policies for specific communities.
Glennis:Yeah, it's a yes and we should be able to do both. And right now Democrats haven't effectively been able to communicate that they do have the vision, the policy and the means to do that. I'm with you. You know, Graham Platner of of course, I think, you know, he won his primary. He'll will go to the general, which I'm sure we'll be saying in three months time is now, you know, maybe it will surpass Texas as like the most expensive primary. I don't know. But there's just so much money flowing into Maine. This is a conversation that's ongoing in the Democratic Party. I think people thought that he was like the golden ticket, that he was the kind of candidate we wanted to see. And we're seeing that, well, actually, um, maybe the consultants who picked him out of a lineup over index for the white male problem. So I think it's an ongoing conversation of what kind of candidates we have as well. But yeah. Let's see and let's keep talking about it here because it's a hill I'll die on if I don't get that social security.
Brian:Yeah, Platner won his race I thought about it a lot since our conversation last week. It's something that I have talked to friends about and and went and and read more about and and got takes from people that I respect, content creators, For me, where I'm at right now is in keeping with this line of thinking around how do you make the lives better of the vast majority of people in the country. The race comes down to which person is going to vote to make everyone's lives better. Period. The end. Do I think that we need better candidates? Yes. Do I wish that someone else were the candidate in Maine? Sure. And I will personally have no qualms about telling people to go out and vote for Platner, knowing that at the end of the day, someone's gonna sit in that seat and they're either gonna vote for billionaires or they're gonna vote for the rest of us. And I think that the moral necessity of that question outweighs personal considerations around the sort of yeah, right, right, exactly.
Glennis:I've stated this as well. I'm with you. And I think that it's helpful and I think people should continue to have dialogue around him as a candidate, but then also talk about that reality of who's going to be protecting working people versus billionaires in the state of Maine at the federal level. So onwards.
Brian:Yeah. And I'll I also just acknowledge before we move on that I say that as a man, like and that this in this context, like he's very much accused of being an abuser of or harasser of or mistreating women. And so I try and think about like, what if it was somebody who like was repeatedly calling people faggot? And think
Glennis:he might have done that, but that's that's okay. Yeah.
Brian:And so I it I'm trying to make it like more personal, like how would I feel in that situation? And ultimately if I genuinely believe that the person would vote for the Equality Act, I would line up to vote for them.
Glennis:Thank you for saying that. And I do think that that's helpful to model for more men in the space to to put themselves in this in the situation of women black women if they can of just like wha what is the reality of of that experience to as much as you can like think about it. We're aligned. It like it is what it is. We can only continue, especially as operatives in the space and strategists, to to pressure those making those decisions of like, why don't we why don't we double check the vetting?
Brian:I mean it is, it is. We we if if we're going there, I have to get into mills, so we we can't even talk it. Uh
Glennis:speaking of billionaires, Brian, the news on all these IPOs? You brought this up last week. I I still don't really have like a I don't understand how consequential it's going to be to the economy. But I know it's gross. I know that it's a lot of money and the worst person in the world is trying to become a trillionaire, Elon Musk.
Brian:It's kind of weird to know that you're the worst person in the world. You know what I mean? Like he is. That's true.
Glennis:Origin story is super villain. His attitude, the way he treats his family and his children. His worldview is villainous. His speciesism is bizarre. Like he's weird.
Brian:We are at a weird moment on the precipice of something when it comes to these AI supergiants. The market, the stock market, has been dropping. Some of the biggest drops in the last few days that we've seen all year, maybe even longer than that. I think it's down three percent just in the last handful of days. That's mostly because AI companies are underperforming and not hitting the marks of of what people are expecting. And that's coming right as they're about to IPO. It does feel precarious. I will point to just how quickly I think the economy could take a dive given the inflation numbers that we were just talking about. And if the companies that are currently seen as propping up the entire stock market, because over seventy percent of the growth in the stock market has come from just five or six companies, the rest are not doing well. We could actually see a tailspin enacted pretty quick. At the same time, we have this conversation boiling over weirdly that Donald Trump has made mainstream of should the government own big chunks of really successful companies in America? Donald Trump started this when he started taking. Forcing companies to hand over a stake in in their company to the government. We've talked we talked about this last year as as Trump socialism. And now Bernie Sanders has put forth a proposal for AI companies to pay fifty percent of their stock over to the public.
Glennis:Yeah, I was thinking about this a little bit more because a huge part of the SpaceX IPO is that the AI element of Elon's universe lives within SpaceX. And I heard the news that Bernie was like fifty percent of AI companies should be owned by the American public or the government. And then I don't have the exact numbers and I I would like to actually look all this up and maybe talk about it at a at a later date. But when you think about how much these companies have received in government contracts, which are paid with our taxpayer dollars It feels very gross to me. I I don't know like if corrupt is the right word here, but it definitely feels like it's not serving the basic interest, to your point, of the American people, to have our taxpayer dollars be funneling into these private companies to personally enrich these people.
Brian:I think that it is the finances, the amount of taxpayer money and services that have gone to propping them up, but it's also the IP. That we have to remember that these models were trained on the collective knowledge of everyone. And a lot of individual IP, personal IP was violated in that happening. That's why you see payouts happening from AI company settlements happening from authors and artists and things who have been suing because they fed their work into this model without permission. Just the collective knowledge, that's why Bernie has started to refer to AI as a public utility, uh, which is an interesting framing of it as we think about what the AI of the future looks like in the most let's say optimistic or highest adoption scenarios, I think that's kind of right. Will you be able to in the future function and have a successful and fulfilling life without interacting with the AI at all? I don't know like just just comparing it to the internet, right? It's it's sort of a internet is I kind of to the point that it's it's a necessity in America
Glennis:to that point, like if you look back at the Inflation Reduction Act, I believe, where installing broadband was it was a huge part of that, right? Because a lot of rural America did not have fast wired internet. I'm just confirming or validating your point that that yeah.
Brian:Right. And so we we do think about the internet as like a a a public utility. And in that sense, AI could very much follow the same path, I think there's a case to be made that the government and the American public should have a stake in these companies and maybe that's a way to address the runaway inequality that is only being accelerated by five companies buying basically everything else that like left. R right.
Glennis:And of course hundreds of employees as well. But I don't think this is a radical idea at all. At all. I'm like, yeah, we should show me the money. Like especially when you look at the numbers around everything that's being cut with the Medicaid, the SNAP, the Social Security. Disappearing. What are you what do you mean we're going to enrich these companies that to your point are using our individual IP that we fed into the internet or PhDs have written in papers or that reporters have written for hundreds and hundreds of years or medical journals have published around research that is being defunded by the government. It's just not a radical thought.
Brian:And this is the horseshoe, right? This is where this is where the left-right axis of politics bends into being a horseshoe. Cause Trump agrees with with Bernie that there is something to this. And I've been talking, I literally did an interview last night on Sirius, and reporters all the time are always asking about this political realignment that's happening where left versus center is not really the defining fight. We've talked about this. It's more about fight versus flight or like a strategy and generational question and divide. I think that old school Dems will be very skittish about ideas like this. Most of the gubernatorial candidates for president in 2028 are gonna run away from any type of policy like this. But I think Oh, because they are old school capitalist thinkers that
Glennis:you're you gotta pull yourself up from your bootstraps and and w work the American way and the system is rigged against Americans, period.
Brian:Totally. Right. Exactly. And I think that that thinking being a commonality between the f far left, using air quotes, and the center is what has shifted the paradigm. Because because we can find people who agree with that exact sentiment that you just said across the political spectrum. That that is sort of the thing that that links everybody together now is that people think that it's broken. And as we've talked about, old school Dems, establishment Dems, what the internet would call corporatist Dems, have become defenders of that system, either wittingly or unwittingly. And that feels like the thing that's gonna break in 2028
Glennis:Yeah, and just to your earlier point on economic issues versus social issues, in that that spectrum of Americans who believe that the the system is rigged, the right side of that, or some of the far right, are also homophobic, racist, misogynist, neo-Nazis, white supremacist, right? So it's like
Brian:a hundred percent.
Glennis:I wanna see my candidate talking about this. It's it's the corruption is abound and like the self enriching and the elected selling out to corporate interests is very, very, very real. When was the last time you used AI?
Brian:Fifteen minutes ago.
Glennis:Yeah. Yeah.
Brian:And every fifteen minutes max every day. Like I'm I'm very deep. Aren't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I thought so. Okay, the one thing that I just wanna point out in what you just said that I think matters is that there are all these people who are motivated by that economic message that they believe the system is rigged and they want someone who's willing to take that on. And there a lot of those people are essentially forced to or or or end up voting for racist, misogynistic, homophobic people because they are the only ones or have been the only ones presenting a path. And a vehicle for that fight, for that message. Because, Democrats have left that lane open by focusing on other things or by not having a compelling enough message on that issue, they were able to capture that lane. And so what I feel like is happening now is Democrats are recapturing the inequality economic. And general middle class wellbeing sort of I mean it's not even that. It's this like basic fairness achievable American dream lane. That can pull people away from and divest power from those racists and misogynists and homophobes our strategy, it seems, for the last few years has mostly been directly taking that on, calling out the exism, instead of proposing an alternative economic path. That can pull people away from them. We just need that we have to pull their audience away from them. That's how you take away their power.
Glennis:Yeah. Just to close this loop, the dichotomy that we see with Graham Platner is that he has shown himself to be a very effective communicator in that way, around these economic issues, around class consciousness, around the inequality in America. And the dialogue is just he also has some of that other stuff too. So um, I wanna I wanna keep us on the billionaire track for a second. Cause I saw a stat that was kind of crazy about FIFA. They're suspected to make $11 billion from the World Cup.
Brian:Woo that's a payday.
Glennis:Mamma mia. But it's tough, right? Because I I'm so excited. We both love soccer. Football. I don't know if the fans know that. The World Cup brings so much joy and energy to the world and fandom and excitement. And it's just like massive eye roll, FIFA. Like and for those who don't know, the World Cup is longer and there are more teams this year. Essentially for the sole purpose of making more money around around the games. Yeah. My TikTok for you page has completely been overtaken by tourists in America for the World Cup and it is bringing me so much joy. It is so funny. There was an Argentina game yesterday at an SEC stadium and all these tourists were like, my God, this is just like a college football stadium, like losing and they had the Eagle fly out. And then there's this whole big thing about you know, it's hot in America and people don't realize like how hot it is. And right.
Brian:Hot in the summer in America.
Glennis:Yeah, and like, you know, that like the Swedish team is in Frisco, Texas, right? They're like dying. And it's just like it's bringing Americans together around like the collective misery of humidity in the United States of America. And everyone's like, everyone's like, now you know why we all have water bottles and we love ice. Just this morning it was so funny. I don't know what country they were from, but they were Spanish speaking and they were at Quincy Market in in Boston and they were having a lobster roll and they were explaining it and they also got a cup of New England clam chowder, which is a thick soup. They thought it was like a dipping sauce for the lobster roll. But anyway, I hold like these two things where like FIFA is like uh hyperbolically corrupt. Like everyone knows that. And they also like to be friendly with fascists. That's what the organization has kind of done forever. It is tough to see how much money they're making off of working people who are paying for the tickets off of New Yorkers who are having to take a two hundred dollar train just to get to MetLife. And then you also see these really horrific headlines about one of most respected referees from Somalia was sent back or the Iranian national team has to fly in and out because they aren't allowed to be in the United States. It's an interesting time.
Brian:Yeah. The World Cup for the rest of the world is like the Knicks in the finals in New York. Glennis is literally in her New York Knicks shirt right now. Knicks in four. Yeah, whatever. Basketball's not my thing. Sorry guys.
Glennis:Yeah.
Brian:Yeah, give me European football, soccer. It's an extremely uniting cultural event for most of the world. It's sad to me that it doesn't quite have the same pull in the States because we have other sports that are more popular. The economics of it are bananas. As you're saying, FIFA's gonna make eleven BIL eleven billy, and New York and New Jersey, who are hosting the finals, are footing the bill for security and transportation, for all of the like infrastructure that has to be set up and managed that's the part that is shitty. And Mikie Sherrill's been fighting that fight that she inherited from her predecessor as the governor of New Jersey.
Glennis:Yeah, New York City taxpayers I hate to break it to you, Brian. Ninety million we're spending on the World Cup. It's gonna leave us forty million in the hole. As per
Brian:that like FIFA wouldn't be paying some of that.
Glennis:That's my thing. FIFA's getting eleven billion dollars and we're we're paying. I guess the assumption is like, oh, all of this tourism's going to bring so much money to the city of New York, but I don't think it's gonna bring Yeah, but not to my pocket.
Brian:To me. I am I supposed to like put a bucket out on the street and be like, Okay, tourists, here's your tax. You saw me in person, so you gotta pay up five bucks each. It maybe feels different for other host countries who typically get seats and tickets set aside for them, which we didn't until Mamdani renegotiated the deal I don't think that Americans are like hyped that we're hosting.
Glennis:Who are you ch cheering for?
Brian:I mean the US, obviously.
Glennis:But our men are.
Brian:Probably actually I'm I'm not gonna lie, I haven't like spent time looking at the rosters. My guess is that I'm gonna be most excited about the UK. England. Just because most of my favorite teams and players are there. I follow EPL more. Who are you? I am.
Glennis:Well definitely not England as someone who has Irish heritage. Thank you very much. I don't know, you know, I'm kind of like open, like I just enjoy watching the players that I love to watch. So obviously like Spain and France are always fun. We'll see, we'll see what the playoffs, playoffs, LOL the round of sixteen look like. Let's talk about Republicans. Brian, you said to me that Republicans are in disarray. To be real. Hard for me to keep uh up with what's going on in Capitol Hill. Period.
Brian:Yes, as it's meant to be, basically.
Glennis:Yeah, as a as someone who used to work there and works in this space, I feel like they're just not doing anything. Except I did see they did get the immigration bill through yesterday. What do I need to know?
Brian:There's a few really big pieces of legislation that are just log jammed in Congress, for the most part, not because Democrats are blocking them, although that's true with some, but also just because Republicans can't agree on anything. That they've elected all these crazy extremists who want to push things beyond the Overton window, like as far as possible. And then they also have moderates who are trying to avoid horrible votes so that they can save their own skin in November. They're not on the same page, especially between the Senate and the House. So it's hard for them to even put proposals forward, which is why this has been the least productive Congress we've had in decades. Trump will be the first president without any major legislative achievement outside of reconciliation. Whereas Biden had a bunch, like the CHIPS and Science Act Obama, you think of Obamacare but Trump couldn't do anything because Republicans can't agree on anything, nor are they willing to negotiate with Dems on more basics. So the pieces of legislation that you needed to know. One, you just referenced reconciliation bill, which was seventy-five billion dollars of ICE and CBP funding, passed the Senate, passed the House, going to be signed by Trump by the time people hear this.
Glennis:And you brought this up a couple of weeks ago. This was always the plan. So when we shut down the government, we didn't really get what we needed. We got dialogue, we got public attention. But you called this out and you said they're just they're just inflating it with more and more money. For ICE.
Brian:Had said no more money for ICE. They had already put a bunch of money in through the one big beautiful bill, the first reconciliation bill that Trump did. ICE was already funded. So nothing that we did was gonna actually stop them from functioning. They wanted more money for ICE. Dems said, no, we won't supply any votes for that. So therefore Republicans went at it alone, as we would say. And passed it through reconciliation, which is a process that requires no democratic votes because it only needs a simple majority in the Senate. So we didn't get what we wanted out of that, which was originally the mask ban, cameras, and more accountability and oversight for ICE. But what we did was eat up a bunch more time. It has taken them months to pass that second reconciliation bill. We had the whole debacle over the weaponization fund, which has n they say been like canceled or paused, but nothing in this bill prohibits Trump from actually pursuing it. So once he signs it, we might hear differently. There's there's nothing to stop him from doing that. Second, is the FISA bill. This is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This is how the uh intelligence services spy on basically everyone outside of the United States. And it has been reauthorized every single time it's come up since it was signed into law. And this is the first time that it looks like it might actually lapse because President Trump appointed Bill Pulte to replace Tulsi Gabbard as the head of DNI, director of national intelligence. Democrats are like, no, no, no, you can't put a nepo baby with zero national security. Zero national security expertise or experience in charge of the entire national security apparatus of the country. We're not gonna give him the power that FISA authorizes. So we're not supplying votes for FISA as long as you have this literally know nothing Nepo baby in charge. You have to get a real person in charge for us to do this. And so it might actually expire on Friday of this week.
Glennis:Yeah, 'cause it's essentially just putting a Trump loyalist to spy on internationals or can they also spy on American people abroad?
Brian:I think that it is restricted. That's part of the negotiation, I believe, and then there's the third reconciliation bill, where Republicans are saying that they're gonna do another Republicans only bill. It's through that process that they wanna get this one point five trillion dollars in military spending because Dems thus far are saying they will not go along with a fifty percent increase in the military budget. And so that looks like it's falling apart. As well and they might end up being forced to vote on a continuing resolution, what's known as a CR, which would simply continue last year's budget levels, which is roughly eight hundred and ninety billion for defense, which would be a huge win for Dems to avoid spending an extra five hundred billion dollars on auditless defense contractors.
Glennis:Isn't that crazy? Like that talking about billionaires, when you look at how much of that budget just gets funneled out into these security contractors or defense contractors. It's truly mind boggling. Like New York City taxpayers and how much our tax money when we send it to the feds that you pay, you Brian Derrick pay directly to defense contractors through the current military budget. It's two thousand dollars a year. And you're sending that straight to Raytheon Yeah, North yeah, Raytheon. It's crazy, Palantir. Oh, I know. I I wear my Oura ring. I'm always like, Good morning, Palantir. Like at putting it on because we're like tracking my data. I'm like, okay, you're gonna see that my my activity levels at a seventy, okay? Like what are you gonna start like shocking Americans Anyway, that that chaps my ass. It's like when you actually this is what I use AI for actually to talk about AI is I do deep research and I pull IRS filings 'cause you as a human I will say like that would be 30 hours of work. I don't like I don't even really know like where to start with that. The more I lift the hood up as to like where my taxpayer dollars are actually going. Because I I own a business in New York City, I'm a consultant and I work in New York City, so I pay tax to the city as you may as well. I I'm I'm kind of obsessed with understanding where my taxpayer dollars go. I'm okay paying tax. That is our duty as American people. I believe in helping my neighbors and creating creating social services for people. But when I see where my money is going, and it's not to SNAP, it's not to WIC, it's not to any of these things because the Trump administration is defunding everything left and right and trying to raise the military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars for what? To go keep bombing Iran?
Brian:Quite literally, yes. Um I like that as a use case for AI. Meanwhile I'm like, if I were a cartoon character, what would the theme song be?
Glennis:My macros today. I will say I downloaded like a food tracker app because I think I told you I recently got into macros. And the AI really has come far. Like it's crazy. Like I'll just like take a photo of the food and it can tell me the macros because I'm lazy, right? Like I don't wanna weigh my food. There's a lot of dialogue in left circles about AI, and like the guard guardrails that needs to be put on AI in terms of like water, you know, the environmental impact. I don't have the answers yet. But I I will say, even if you say that you don't use AI, AI is using you. It is in everything that you do at this point. Brian. You had some opinions about something, and that is the Biden rollout of these books. So for those who don't know what.
Brian:I mean just the Biden family general, what the f*ck is going on?
Glennis:It doesn't bother me. I'm you know what I'm more concerned about? Jared and Ivanka saying they're gonna buy an island that's Albanian, a part of the country of Albania. Like talk about colonialism. Hit me, what's what's what's going on?
Brian:Well, they're all over the place. Jill Biden gave some bananas interviews saying that she thought that Biden was having a stroke during the debate, and then immediately after that said that he would have won if he had been on the ticket in '24 And I'm like what? Just all press for her book that no one asked for. Then you have Hunter Biden. Who's made an appearance on Twitter and the MAGA podcast circuit kicking off with this two-hour interview with Candace Owens. He's been having very interesting interactions with people going super viral around that. And then we have Joe Biden, who's currently scheduled to drop a book in the fall. It's rumored but not confirmed that it will come out in September, right before the midterm elections. I guess rehashing 2024 and his presidency. So I have thoughts. What are your thoughts?
Glennis:My thoughts are Hunter does not bother me. He is a self proclaimed addict and I think that he humanizes addiction for a lot of people. Think he's funny and I think all of his points are very valid and we need more messengers on the left. I did not think it would be Hunter Biden clapping back at people. He had one that went exceptionally viral when a right-wing Twitter account said, Hunter, are you sure those weren't your drugs found at the White House? And he said, Definitely not. I would never have left my drugs anywhere. And by the way, I don't like coke I like crack. We wanted realness, we're getting it. The books
Brian:said authenticity.
Glennis:We got it. And I watched the Candace interview and I watched him on Channel Five News. He's humanizing addiction. I I don't know. I actually think he's probably helping the Biden family image, honestly. And I appreciate that. The books I'm sick of the presidential books. Period, but it's what happens. And my question for you assuming that Joe Biden is is the book is coming out, right? It's just a matter of of when, if it's before the midterms or after, do you think it's better to come out before the midterms when people have kind of already decided who they're gonna vote for? Or we we know as political strategists, the minute after the midterm election ends, the presidential starts. So would it be worse for the book to come out later?
Brian:No, it's better. It's better after because then it's like, oh, look at this Greek tragedy that we suffered through in twenty twenty four. Let's not do that again. Let's pick somebody good. That's great timing, actually. I think it will help us learn the right lessons, whether they're written in the book or we gain the lessons from what is not written in the book. That's fine with me. Pre elections is so self-centered and ego maniacal, I can't I can't deal with that. If that ends up being when he decides to drop it for cash, that's so embarrassing. The Hunter stuff I agree with. To me, sorry, but it reflects poorly on the Biden administration. Mostly the senior leadership that they hid Hunter Biden. Clearly, he should have been doing this when he was getting called a crackhead by members of Congress on the floor of the House and Senate and whatever. He should have been allowed to speak. He was essentially hidden for four years in basements and whatever. I don't know where he was. But
Glennis:yeah.
Brian:We just let the rumors fly about the paintings and Burisma and the boards and the money and like all this stuff. And he was nowhere. He was nowhere. And now he's like unleashed And to me, that's like, oh, that's yet another f*ck up from senior Biden admin folks. You clearly should have let him loose on Twitter so that he could have responded in real time. Imagine how different that would have gone.
Glennis:Yeah, yeah, he's an extremely effective communicator I appreciate seeing it. Did you meet him at the White House? Oh, okay. He was at he was at uh the Christmas party and and I saw him and I was like, Hunter, I'm gonna need a photo.
Brian:My gosh. Did you guys recreate stuff from the laptop or?
Glennis:LOL no, his um no. No. But yeah, I've always like yeah, I've always thought that Hunter had it, the thing, right? The effective communication thing. And I'm like, great. And your point is very valid. I didn't think of it that way. He was a s he's a strong tool. Why didn't we take him out of the toolbox? Well, anyway, if you're a publisher, listen to Brian Derrick and maybe push that.
Brian:Push that f*cking launch date. I also have to say that Hunter Biden being the 2028 nominee would be the funniest the funniest timeline.
Glennis:That's not Yeah.
Brian:To we live in literally the stupidest timeline and it would be the funniest outcome if Biden if Hunter Biden was like a consensus candidate that pulled in all these people from the right who were like MAGA people burned by Trump's forever wars and super taxes and the corruption and stuff. And like that would be it would just be funny. I just think it's funny.
Glennis:To your point though, whoever he endorses or puts his weight behind it'll probably be very helpful for that candidate, assuming that they are a front runner. You know I've been I'm asking you every week now to tell me who's a candidate that I should I should be more excited about that I might not have on my radar. So who is it this week?
Brian:I am going to highlight a Senate race, which I almost never do, so I'm gonna take the opportunity because there's a really spicy good one right now, and highlight Josh Turek who's running for US Senate in Iowa, which we don't think of as a winnable state, but he is a former state legislator who's incredibly popular in the state. He's on the ticket with Rob Sand, a Democrat who has won statewide office in Iowa. Well before and they to together make a really effective duo that's sort of changing the landscape of Iowa. So still an uphill battle, still not considered like a top tier quote unquote US Senate race. I especially highlight it because he just came out of a competitive primary and is therefore broke. And that's one of the most effective times that you can donate to a candidate is right when they come out of a primary, they need to staff up very quickly, the Republicans immediately start hitting them with all of this super PAC money and outside spending, trying to define them in the eyes of voters as too weak, too woke, whatever. And so they need money to get their message out quickly. So voters hear them respond and hear from them. So it's a really effective time to be donating. Josh Turek on Oath.vote. Find him, hit him up. He's a 10.0 on our impact score right now. And It's a good use of your twenty, fifty, hundred, two thousand dollars. Go do it.
Glennis:What about ten? Ten dollars? Oh. So no. If someone wanted to give ten dollars, like say they only had ten dollars, they said I'm gonna give my coffee allowance.
Brian:I immediately thought you meant ten K. Yeah, absolutely.
Glennis:The working people of America.
Brian:Yes, ten dollars is welcome.
Glennis:Great.
Brian:Should we send him off with a good vibe?
Glennis:Yeah.
Brian:Something that's not crack cocaine.
Glennis:I just wanna like reiterate the vibe of New York City is so amazing right now because of the Knicks. And I just wanna acknowledge that for any New York listeners, whether or not you care about the Knicks or not, it does feel like the city has come together. It was an amazing vibe to see how many people booed Donald Trump at game three, who he then fell asleep at the game. So great. The World Cup to me is a great vibe. High energy and out of Los Angeles, Spencer Pratt lost. The Republican backed reality TV star who lied through his teeth about his lived experience, save for the fact that his house did burn down in the Palisades fire. He lost. So the people of Los Angeles have spoken and he and his crystals and his hummingbirds can move out of California. I I'm pretty sure he said that if he lost, he was like, I'm out so that's how much you love your state and your city, huh?
Brian:Yeah, it's a very Cuomo-esque vibe. Take your ball and go home. So sorry. I'm sorry that Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by three to one and that you're running against the values of the vast majority of voters. Sorry.
Glennis:Turns out not a not a winning ticket.
Brian:And with that, we hope you guys have an awesome week. Thank you for listening. We will be back here next week. In the interim, make sure that you like, subscribe, comment, share, and if you've got a minute, leave a review. It's how new listeners find us.
